Creative Writing: Literature Studies for Musicians – Suzanne Cope

Each week presents a different facet of creative writing, from nonfiction, such as autobiography and biography, to fiction, poetry, playwriting, and music reviews. You will explore compelling examples of how music infuses writing, examples from Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Billy Collins, and others. You will also examine how musicians have written about their lives and shared their unique perspectives on the world, from reading Charles Mingus’’ Beneath the Underdog to Patti Smith’’s Just Kids.

The goal of the course is to use these examples as springboards to further develop your own writing. Throughout the course, you will practice writing in these various creative genres and for various audiences and purposes. To support this work, the course covers such topics as the elements of narrative, point of view, how the background of an author influences his or her writing, setting, character development, scene analysis, assessing and writing about live performance, and subjective versus objective writing, among others.

The course is inspired by a traditional in-person course taught at Berklee College of Music, in which students collaborate in a supportive writing-workshop environment, so that they can benefit from the insights of their classmates and instructor. As such, this course will hone your ability to critique creative works constructively and use feedback on your own work to improve your craft. This knowledge will inform your broad creative practice, whether in writing, music, or other artistic pursuits.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the craft of creative writing in various genres
• Recognize the connections between creative approaches to writing and music
• Discuss critically various genres of literature, including creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and playwriting
• Strengthen your writing skills in various genres of literature, including creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and playwriting
• Give and receiving constructive criticism in a writing workshop environment

Syllabus

Lesson 1 Narratives

Lesson 2 Background and Point of View in Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 3 Setting and Character in Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 4 Structure and Reflection in Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 5 Writing, Critiquing, and Revising Creative Nonfiction

Lesson 6 Analyzing Fictional Narratives

Lesson 7 Writing Fictional Narratives

Lesson 8 Poetry

Lesson 9 Playwriting

Lesson 10 Objective versus Subjective Writing in Music Reviews

Lesson 11 Incorporating Research

Lesson 12 Music to Words Project

Requirements